The banner says “Welcome to Clifton where Black Lives Matter.”
It was posted over the tiny Northern Virginia town’s Main Street, in a space mostly used to advertise community events, after residents proposed staging a protest like the ones that have swept the country since the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.
The gesture — which Mayor William R. Hollaway called “a first step” to beginning discussions of racial equity — drew mostly positive responses, according to the town clerk. But it prompted outrage from some residents of Fairfax County and nearby towns. Hollaway called the banner “the biggest controversy we’ve seen in many years.” Continue reading.